Allowing privates in nuclear power will open Pandora’s box, says activist Udhayakumar

CHENNAI: Prominent anti-nuclear activist SP Udhayakumar on Saturday opposed the Union government’s plan to set up a one lakh MW capacity atomic power station by 2047 with private participation.

“For an active partnership with the private sector towards this goal (of achieving 100 GW nuclear power generation), amendments to the Atomic Energy Act and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act will be taken up,” Nirmala Sitharaman said while presenting the Union Budget for 2025-26.

She said a Nuclear Energy Mission for research and development of Small Modular Reactors (SMR) with an outlay of Rs 20,000 crore will be set up. At least five indigenously developed SMRs will be operationalised by 2033,” she said. Currently, India produces 8,100 MW of nuclear power through 24 atomic power plants across the country and hopes to increase it to 20 GW by 2032.

SP Udhayakumar of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) said that with the present generation capacity of a meagre 8,000 MW, the goal is certainly not achievable.

“The Union government also plans to facilitate the participation of private companies in nuclear power generation. They intend to dilute the Atomic Energy Act 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act 2010. This must not be allowed,” he said, warning of dire consequences.

Disputing the Finance Minister’s claim that nuclear power is clean, he said that they use carbon-emitting power during the construction phase of nuclear power plants (20-30 years), for the regular operation of nuclear power plants (40-60 years), for the decommissioning of the nuclear power plants, and the waste management.

“As we can see, nuclear power plants consume so much polluting power. If polluting the air is the problem, poisoning the earth cannot be the answer. How are we going to deal with the dangerous nuclear waste for the next 42,000 years?” he said, highlighting the possible dangers of privatisation in the sector.